The ATF is Keeping Us Safe

The ATF seized a shipment of 30 Airsoft BB guns headed for a retail business because ….

Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.

“With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.

And then there was the orange tip “problem.”

ATF said it also seized the toys because they are missing the blaze orange tips required on all imported toy guns.

The Martins said they’ve received shipments before from Taiwan that were missing the orange tips and were simply asked by customs agents to drive up to Tacoma and paint the tips orange themselves. They are wondering why it is an issue now.

6 Responses to The ATF is Keeping Us Safe

The beautiful moment is when the BATFU “expert” inserts the magazine backwards during the interview. Yep, we’re in good hands.

Sal says:

March 1st, 2010 at 10:31 am

ATF = Bureau of Asses, Turds, and Fuckups.

Tom Osborne says:

March 1st, 2010 at 5:07 pm

BB guns retro-fitted into dangerous weapons? Dangerous to whomever is stupid enough to do that and attempt to shoot it.

Splash Daddy says:

March 2nd, 2010 at 8:11 am

This was deliberate on the part of the BATF. While most of us with any knowledge of firearms know the toy gun cannot be converted, millions of willfully ignorant Amerikans hear this spoken by an “authority” and believe it – hence even toy guns should be banned or at least regulated. (We don’t want our little sheeple to even pretend that they can fight and defend themselves. Dangerous idea!) Remember, a toy gun, plastic knife, or even a butter knife in a student’s car will get him expelled for violating the “zero-tolerance” policy against weapons.

M. Terry says:

March 2nd, 2010 at 4:45 pm

So – the “experts” at BATFU claim that these airsoft, plastic BB shooters, can be “easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.” “With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.

Notwithstanding the fact that an Airsoft gun is made to feed and shoot 6mm plastic BBs, and 6mm BBs are considerably shorter than the 45mm cartridge case of a 223, it would seem, that even if an Airsoft gun made to operate at about 800 psi, as opposed to 55,000 psi, was somehow “easily converted” to handle one of the smallest NATO rifle rounds without detonating, the conversion wouldn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, be “easy.”

If, for some reason, the lower receiver of the BB gun could be converted to work with an AR15 upper receiver, the conversion would still likely not be “easy.”

If one has the ability to re-machine the components of the lower and attach it to an upper, that person also already has the knowledge, tools and ability to make a full auto “dangerous weapon.” And they wouldn’t likely start this nefarious project with a $400 + gun that shoots plastic BBs.

Unfinished AR15 lowers are available – without papers – for under a hundred bux. A machinist could use one of those unfinished receivers to make a full auto lower for an AR15. But we’re supposed to believe that these Airsoft gas guns can be “easily converted” into a “machine gun.”

My guess is the “experts” at BATFU are stalling for time in order to jury rig parts from the BB gun into a something that may actually fire a rifle round.

Oh yeah – if you have any rifle laying around the house, and you have a hack saw in the tool box, you have all the tools to make an illegal short-barreled rifle, according to ATF.

I wish that federal employees would go back to watching porn on government computers. They cause less trouble, and frankly, those tax dollars are better spent. Perhaps the ATF “experts” are just remembering what mommy told them when they played with the Red Ryder in the back yard: “Be careful – you could put your eye out with that.” Hence the proclamation about the BB gun potentially being a “dangerous weapon.”

Clearly, some people have too much time on their hands and wild imaginations to boot. But as long as it gives them a reason to put a jackboot on a businessman’s neck, they feel their day’s work is well done.